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STATE COLLEGE — The Patton family vacation to Argentina, which was in the works for about two years, was set to begin Friday.

The trip made a minor detour though, taking not only Patton, but the entire Dallas baseball team to Penn State where it was playing for the PIAA Class 4A championship.

So there was Drew Patton roaming the outfield in left at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. He came up with one of several spectacular defensive plays made by the Mountaineers in a 5-0 victory over South Park.

“We were planning the trip for two years,” Patton said. “We had to push the flight back one day. I am happy to be here. I got a medal.”

The Mountaineers, who at one point were 2-6 this year, finished the season on a 13-game winning streak to end the year 15-6. Dallas became the second team from the Wyoming Valley Conference to win a state title, following Berwick’s 2008 team. The Mountaineers were the seventh team from the WVC to play for a state championship since 1980. South Park, the District 7 runner-up, dropped to 23-4.

Dallas ace Nick Kocher made his sixth postseason start in seven games and went six innings. He struck out nine to tie a season-high.

Shortstop Will McCrum came through with the first defensive gem of the day, making a sliding back-handed stop of a ball destined for the outfield that surely would have scored the South Park runner at second at the time.

“My job right there is to just knock the ball down and keep it in the infield,” McCrum said. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good grip and make the play. But Kocher just did his job.”

In the top of the fourth, with the game still scoreless, it was Patton’s turn to flash the leather and his arm. With two outs and pinch-runner Brenden Gray at second, Kevin Vaupel lined a base hit to left. Patton got to the ball before Gray touched third.

South Park manager Steve Bucci sent Gray anyway. Patton came up throwing and reached catcher Matt Mathers on the fly.

“There were two out and our nine guy was up next,” Bucci said. “We could have played the odds there, maybe (Kocher) walks a guy. It looked like (Kocher) was settling in, and if we could steal one here. (Patton) had some good momentum. It is a play we would have done earlier. It was where we were in the order.”

“My eyes were bigger than the ball at that point,” Patton said. “I saw the runner turn from third. I thought I had a good shot at him. I knew exactly when the ball was in the air I had a feeling I had him.”

The throw was a little high, but Mathers made an athletic play to complete the tag.

“I know Drew has a strong arm,” Mathers said. “It was a pretty good throw and I got the tag on the kid. He was cooked at home. I saw the coach waving him home.”

South Park managed to get runners on base in five of the six innings Kocher pitched. South Park had runners on the corners in the first and again in the fifth. But each time, Kocher, who ends the season 8-2, made the pitches necessary to get out of trouble.

“It just feels great to win a state championship,” Kocher said. “As long as I felt good I was going today. There was no way I was saying I wasn’t feeling good.”

Dallas scored twice in the fourth and three more times in the sixth to put the game out of reach. Darren Kerdesky delivered the big blow in the sixth with a two-run triple.

“Today was a whole different arena than the season,” Dallas manager Ken Kashatus said. “The season was we were 2-6 and we got our act together and we got everything right. (Kocher) really gutted it up to get through the sixth. He pitched better today than he did in a lot of the other games. He just doesn’t show a lot of emotion.”

Once Kocher’s afternoon was done on the mound, Josh Lydon came on to make his 10th consecutive appearance and 16th out of the 21 games the Mountaineers played.

Lydon retired the side in order on seven pitches, six of them strikes.

“It has been an unbelievable ride,” Lydon said. “To go from 2-6 to a state championship is pretty unbelievable. We never lost confidence. We went out and performed the way we expected to.”

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